WWE Great Balls of Fire fan feedback
Thumbs Up
- Best Match: Ambulance Match
- Worst Match: Ambrose vs. Miz
Show started off well with a good cruiserweight match between Neville and Tozawa. Crowd at least is into it. Neville dropping the title on a preshow seems unlikely and who knows who will come around to take it from him.
Rollins vs. Wyatt was a fine match. Glad to see Wyatt pick up a win here, but will it actually lead to anything or just Rollins getting his win back?
Enzo vs. Big Cass was basically what I expected which is Cass going over and squashing his former friend. Not sure what to do with Enzo now. Manager or cruiserweight seems like the best options.
Tag team Iron Man match was good. Not sure what happened at the end with Cesaro being the legal man or so they said. I’d like to see footage of this since it seemed like the ref lost control.
Raw Women’s match was also pretty solid except for the count out. I really don’t get the count out rule in this day and age especially when they use this finish so often in title matches that it makes the rules, the ref, and everyone but the champ look stupid. I mean if you are the champ why wouldn’t you just get counted out every single time and be Champion forever.
Ambrose vs. Miz was a weak match. Nothing new here and the wrestling wasn’t anything special. Should the ref allow this many people at ringside? It’s not a lumberjack match. Let’s hope this feud is over.
Strowman vs. Reigns delivered again, although not as good as some of their other matches. Strowman wins and Reigns destroys him after, but was this a double turn? Roman has to be a heel for trying to kill someone right? I sure hope Kurt Angle doesn’t reward an attempted murder with a main event title match at Summer Slam.
Despite the short length the main event was good. I think they could have used a few more minutes, but it came across well. I’d like to see Joe get more main event matches and even a title run. I would have let him kick out of the first F5 at least.
Overall a decent show good enough for a thumbs up.
– Robb Block
**********
Thumbs Up.
Enjoyed the show overall, some really cool/clever spots throughout, many of the finishes were clunky but that’s about par for the course with WWE. Commentary isn’t a net-positive but that’s another par for the WWE course. Booker T. uses far too many superlatives too often when selling the matches, and that comes across as disingenuous and hokey.
Would’ve preferred a more realistic, UWFi-style match out of Joe/Brock if only because fans are so much more educated when it comes to submissions and general grappling due to the massive expanse of MMA and thus, the Joe chokeout spots didn’t resonate as much as they could’ve if they’d have worked it a little bit more like a shoot and sold when Joe would get a hook in etc.
I think it would’ve been cool and different in a positive way if they let Joe’s submissions look a bit more authentic and threatening. By comparison, I felt as though the Whittaker/Romero fight last night had more drama (Joe/Brock clearly had the better build) and even the third round pop Werdum got after he hurt Overeem and went for the takedown, knowing his BJJ credentials “told better stories” and that was without the benefit of being able to lay out spots. Joe/Brock was fun for a “Hoss Fight” but it felt like they left a much more cerebral and realistic match on the table.
- Best Match: Hardys vs. Cesaro and Sheamus
- Worst Match: Enzo vs. Big Cass
– Jeff Parker
**********
Thumbs down
- Best match: Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar
Liked Banks/Bliss (though the finish was weak, as is the case with most women’s PPV matches) and the main event (though Joe should’ve kicked out of the first F5, and it could’ve gone another ~4 minutes), everything else was uninteresting.
– Tyler Shillman
**********
Overall thumbs in the middle … Probably should be a slight thumbs up, but never gave the show my full attention from beginning to end.
- Best – Lesnar vs Joe – the way they ended the Reigns match I had hopes that Joe could get a longer rivalry out of this – guess I was in fantasy land. Good while it lasted, but ending was flat as a “smart” Joe would simply have rolled out the ring.
- Worst – between Rollins and the Ambrose match I probably saw less than a minute combined…just don’t need those same old same old match ups…boring
Ending of Reigns/Strowman was lame, lame, lame – this kind of stuff should be on Raw. Like we are supposed to believe in this crap. Match was good for what is was.
Hope to god that Enzo finds a buddy to team with! Otherwise it’s Santino Marella all over again. Could they do a “loser leave Raw” and have Cass hook back up with Carmella? As I don’t see him panning out as a single long term.
Iron man and women’s match were just there.
There is NO intrigue to anything on raw at the moment. The acts I like, they have killed dead -Bayley/Sasha rivalry, 205, Enzo, Finn etc.
– Peter L
**********
Thumbs Up
- Best Match: Hardys vs Sheamus/Cesaro
- Worst Match: Enzo vs Cass
Imagine a WWE PPV where the only clean babyface winner is Heath Slater. Talk about not giving the babyface heat.
But do they really give the SummerSlam main event to an attempted murderer? Unless they’re going to do a three-way with Roman/Strowman/Brock, there is no explanation short of a suspension for Reigns deliberating doing what he did. I know it’s pro wrestling. But when Strowman tipped over the ambulance with Reigns in it? They had a match. But if Strowman won the match to face the champion at SummerSlam, what’s the point of giving him another match with Reigns before that? Unless this was a double-turn and they’re going to have Lesnar come out on Raw and there’s no finish to the rematch on TV….
– Jeff Cohen
**********
Thumbs in middle.
Enjoyed the Iron Man Match, well the last 10 minutes was real good.
Majority of the rest felt like a good Raw.
Ambulance Match stuff really took me out of it. It was so stupid and long. Why didn’t someone just drive the ambulance forward? Anyway, really Vince thing to do and he probably has no idea it turned Braun full face. Not to mention the supposed face threw a temper tantrum, stole an ambulance and attempted murder. And Vince wonders why nobody takes to Roman.
Worst Match: Enzo-Cas. Wasn’t designed to be good but there are more effective ways to do a squash match.
Best Match: Iron Man Match. Main event was fine as the crowd came alive but it was super rushed and the ending was lame.
– Mike Flynn